AA American Legion baseball: Former champs oust O’s

The Trail AA Orioles knew they had their work cut out for them heading into the Washington State AA American Legion Baseball championship in Lacey, Wash. this week. Still, they didn’t get much help as they were bounced by last year’s champion Yakima Valley Peppers in the second game of the double knock-out tournament.

The AA Orioles dropped their opening game on Saturday against a tough Bellingham Post 7 team 7-2, before they were sent packing in a 12-4 loss to Yakima on Sunday.

The Orioles were the only Canadian team playing in the 16-team state tournament, and were one of four teams, including Mt. Spokane, Asotin, and Gonzaga Prep, from the Area 3 to compete.

In the first round, Olympia, a number-four seed from Area 2, shocked the number-one seeded Peppers from Area 4 in their opening match 3-1 to drop Yakima into the losers bracket to face Trail.

The AA Orioles jumped out to a promising start scoring three in the top of the fourth to take a 3-1 lead.

Yet, with two outs and one runner on, an error would cost the O’s dearly as the Peppers would rally to score five times in the fifth to take a 6-3 lead, and add one more in the sixth and five in the seventh for the 12-4 victory.

Soukeroff went 2-for-4 for the O’s, while Tambellini was tagged with the loss, going 4 2/3 innings, giving up seven runs, of which just one was earned, on six hits, and five strike outs.

In the first match, the AA O’s managed just three hits as Bellingham jumped out to a 5-1 lead after two innings then rode the arm of Dylan Harper to victory. Harper went seven innings giving up two runs on three hits, four walks and six strike outs as he faced just 27 Trail batters for the victory.

Brendan Makay took the loss for Trail, going five innings, and giving up seven runs on seven hits. Nathan Soukeroff went 1-for-2 with a triple, and Bradley Ross was also 1-for-2 with an RBI.